Understanding Assembly Language

Assembly Language is a low-level programming language that directly corresponds to a specific machine's architecture and instruction set. Unlike high-level programming languages such as Python or Java, which provide abstraction from hardware details, Assembly Language exposes programmers to the intricate working of the central processing unit (CPU), memory, and other system components.

• It acts as a bridge between high-level programming languages and the underlying hardware architecture.
• It communicates directly to the hardware.
• Human readable version of machine code.

Every Hardware platform has its own assembly language. Assembly language is specific to the architecture of the processor or CPU it's designed for.

Properties of Assembly Language

1. Low-level Nature: Assembly language is considered a low-level programming language. 
2. Symbolic Representation: While assembly language instructions are closely tied to the machine code, they use symbolic representations for mnemonics and operands, making them more human-readable compared to binary code. For instance, instead of binary representations like “10101010”, assembly language might use “MOV” to represent a move instruction.
3. Hardware Specificity: Assembly language is tied to the architecture of the underlying hardware. Each processor architecture has its own set of instructions, registers, and addressing modes, resulting in different assembly languages for different CPU architectures (e.g., x86, ARM, MIPS).
4. Direct Control over Hardware: Assembly language provides programmers with direct access to the CPU's hardware resources, such as registers, memory, and I/O ports. This level of control allows for highly optimized code tailored to specific hardware configurations, making assembly language ideal for performance-critical applications.
5. Lack of Abstraction: Unlike high-level programming languages, assembly language lacks many of the abstractions and conveniences, such as data types, control structures, and functions, found in languages like C, Python or Java. Programmers must manage memory, control flow, and data manipulation explicitly.
6. Limited Portability: Due to its close ties to hardware architecture, assembly language programs are generally not portable across different platforms.  Code written in one assembly language typically cannot be executed on a different CPU architecture without significant modification or complete rewriting.